Planet Fall
by Macross of Briggs
Summary: "I've told many a story in my time, but this one takes me back to the days of the Great Fleet War, but this time let me tell you of the people I met on my forced vacation through to another world"
1. Chapter 1

Death, destruction, mayhem, that was the main goals of the attack. Instil fear into the population of the orbital platform Beta (β), one of the most outer rim platforms under our control. β is one of three that has the facilities to construct capital class dreadnaughts. The planet β is built around a vast industry planet named "Corpus". It's capable of supplying large fleets almost indefinitely as long as the other planets in the system remain under control.

There are five planets in total, each as unique as the next. The first planet "Mimas" has a large amount of active volcanos, which is used for large scale refining and power production. Smaller scale platforms used primarily as a storage and transport hub for inter system travel because of its proximity to the orbital path of the systems kinetic relay. The second planet in from the edge of the system, a gas giant that is one of only one of fifteen gas giants containing the potent gas "Crystite". This gas is refined and used to fuel the kinetic relays and the generators of some of the more recently contracted orbital platforms. The third is "Corpus" followed by the fourth planed "Meridian Prime". This planet has quiet a large population because most people prefer to not stay on the platforms/rings. "Meridian" houses most of the workers of "Corpus". The fifth planet is a barren world in tidal lock with the sun. Naturally, most of the population live on the dark side of the planet or at least those that want to be there. The rest of the world has been converted in to a high level detention centre were only the worst of the worst are kept.

My life is spent on the capital ship "Pride of Eden". The Pride of Eden is the most recent ship I've been assigned to but the first with ark folding tech, the Pride of Eden is a fast response carrier carrying 15 light frigates fitted with magnetic accelerator cannons, 15 heavy bombers, 15 infantry transport frigates and 30 light interceptors. The carrier itself is fitted with a capital siege cannon as well as 5 point defence magnetic accelerator cannons. We are currently at β getting a refuel and refit on our forward Magnetic cannons fitting them with a experimental direct ammo feed belt removing the need for a loading crew and allowing for sustained fire over a longer period, we are also taking on supplies for a three year deployment to an adjacent sector while training is taking place for the crew of our point defence turrets.

While we are deployed are going to be taking part in a live fire exercise with one of the new dreadnoughts to test our new point defence as well as the dreadnaughts new assault pod system. The system we are being deployed to is a militarised zone used purely for exercises like the one are taking part in, the system consists of 3 asteroid belts and a swamp planet named "Hosen" there is also a large mass of ship hulks from the old war, one ship in particular "The Icarus" is left afloat there abandoned and forgotten yet it is the most intact one of them all It still has its reactor's and Its Weapon systems, the story of The Icarus is unknown all that is known is that it was the flag ship of a grand empire and that it only had one equal, it's sister ship "the Hyperion" witch was destroyed during the raid of Gamma (γ), all hands lost.

Out of nowhere the intercom springs to life. "all hands prepare for undocking procedure". Guess it's time for me to get to the hanger deck and start the lockdown for ark fold, Ark folding is the effect of rapid mass compression allowing larger vessels (like carriers) to jump across Interplanetary space in a fraction of the time it would take travelling at maximum impulse speed, a by-product of ark folding is it tends to cause severe mutations to occur to unprotected carbon based life forms. In theory a vessel could use ark folding to cross inter system space but every time this has been tested the vessel has been vaporised upon exiting melded space and we don't want that to happen, do we?

As I approach the upper decks I am always checking my heads up display for updates on; time until ark fold, status of hanger door and refilling progress of the Crystite reserves. Once they are at 100% capacity we will be undocking completely. At the moment, they are at 82% capacity at the moment, if I've done the math correctly I have two and a half minutes until the refill is complete three minutes to clear dock and two minutes to charge the Ark fold drive, which gives me six minutes to close the hanger doors and get to my jump chair unless I want to be a pancake after Ark launch, not a pleasant sight.

Entering the Hanger deck I find myself in the middle of the crew of β hurrying to leave and the crew of the carrier returning to their posts after a short shore leave to visit the local planets. "Hey McDonald get your ass over here and help me with the door".

The one person I'm happy to see after getting this placement was my own brother unfortunately it wasn't, "you must be my boss, Fredric right?" What was I thinking? Who else would know my family name on this ship? "Who do you think I am, any way we need to get this door shut unless you want to experiment with mutations?" The stories I've listened to of the Mutations from what I've heard they aren't a pleasant sight, mind you I wouldn't like to have my skin turned into a brittle glass like substance or a third arm to grow were my left knee is. Anyway we need to get this door closed and it requires two engineering officers to do such a task, to close the doors the first step is to check the track for any objects that could block the doors from sealing, all clear, now to check the control wiring for fraying or striping of the intuition, all wires intact and not arcing, ok finally to check the motor assembly for any fractures of missing gear, something's wrong here, the assembly is missing, we can close the door but we don't have time for that, we need to cancel the ark fold.

Running to the console I find myself thinking, why something so critical was over looked? "

Hanger to bridge, cancel the Ark Fold, The Main Motor assembly is missing and we can't close the doors!"... No response?

This is strange but I've got no time to think about this we need to evacuate the section and seal it. "Bridge to hanger, not sure if you were brought up to date but the Motor assembly is now housed internally repeat the Motor is in the super structure itself, go for seal." "Engineering confirms go for seal". I swear no one tells me anything anymore. Following Engineer Fredric's steps we start the process to sealing the hanger. "Enter security codes on my mark 3... 2... 1... Mark." Shorty after triggering the protocol the doors creak to life and inch towards each other eventually slowing down to a crawl as the electromagnetic field takes control, pulls them shut and sealed to the point were not even an Oxygen practical can pass through the door.

"2 minutes until Ark Launch." The chilling synthesised voice over the intercom indicating that all crew have gotten to their jump chairs and the onboard artificial intelligence has take control for the flight too Mimas. Arriving at my jump chair I notice that I'm one of three people in this section unfortunately the other two don't seem awake, the first a thin man sitting in a personalised chair and the other another man who seems to short for the chair (his feet aren't touching the floor), my seat still smells of the factory floor that it was made in, strapping myself in I find myself again in thought "this is my first time Ark Folding" the count down on the wall pulls me out of my thought "5... 4... 3... 2..."


	2. Chapter 2

To the crew of a ship Ark folding across space nothing changes except for the fact that most of the time when you Ark fold you are often left with a head-ache but if it's you're first time then you will be stuck with the feeling of being compressed and then reconstructed moments later several million kilometres from you're previous position, but to the outside observer a ship entering Melded Space is an impressive site as the drive charges the ship deploys a sires of relay pylons along the hull and the engine blast shielding, once fully deployed the pylons will begin channelling energy of the drive to form a warp field to act as a method of propelling the ship across space by channelling the power output in a curtain direction, a secondary affect of this field is that it pushes the ship out of phase giving it a near zero mass allowing it to travel at 3/10th's of light speed.

I can feel the effects of the phasing, it feels as if I've been exposed to the vacuum of space and then thrown in to a gas giant, mean while the people around me seem unaffected (one of them even looks like he might wake up but doesn't). After removing my harness I start making my way down to the engineering deck to check on the sub-light engines... _CRUNCH,_ the sound of hull plating being torn asunder is a unpleasant sound, followed by the sound of alarms as sections of the ship are sealed to keep the crew safe, "Red alert! All hand to damage control stations." As this is said over the intercom my HUD springs to life displaying a ship cross section of the damage: hanger deck is depressurising, forward bunker is destroyed, the sensor tower has been destroyed and there was a munitions explosion in the armoury. The main priority is to bring the auxiliary radar tower online so we can get an idea of what hit us and how much damage it did to the outer hull.

On my way to the power bunker I can feel the ship slowly falling apart as damage slowly spreads through the super structure of the ship, "deck 8 has depressurised, no survivors." The AI has kicked in trying to keep the ship from falling apart anymore than it already has, "structural field failing, swapping to backups." approaching the bunker I began activating the tower, "Radar tower coming online, please select targeting parameters."The AI's prompt gives me an idea, "Computer, scan the surrounding space of objects capable of doing damage to the carrier after exiting melded space?" "Two targets matching parameters; the kinetic relay and an unknown object. Cross section doesn't match any know space crafts, size matches a corvette, it is emitting a slight power signature, remains on the hull don't match the mass of the object, results are that of a projectile, most likely Kinetic." "Computer, is there any one on the bridge?" "Negative." "Get me communications with the Captain Bain.", a second later com-system comes online and I can hear voices on the other side. "Captain, I've managed to get the radar online and it is showing a Corvette, possibly fitted with kinetic weapons." "All hands this is the captain speaking, Abandon ship, I repeat Abandon ship." As his order ends the navigation lights come online showing the path to the nearest escape pod rack.

On my way to the escape pod's another round hits, "Critical damage to siege cannon, overload detected, 2 minutes till critical overload". If we don't get the pods to safety the resulting explosions and magnetic wave. From the cannon going up will knock out any and all systems within 10,000 Km of the ship meaning the kinetic relay will go down and the orbital platform will be plunged in to darkness, any hope of rescue will be snuffed out like a flame in a damp cave.

As I jump in to an empty escape pod I can feel the electrical charge building up in the atmosphere, the cannon is going to be going up any second now… Time to leave, after activating the pods on-board computers I start strapping myself in I have a very interesting thought, who are the people that attacked us deep in our own space? Closing the pods hatch I had another thought, how did they know we were going to be here and how did they know we were going to be weak after the ark fold? Was this an unknown effect of ark folding did we pull this seemingly insect ship out of its own space.

I hold my breath as the pod accelerates to escape velocity… It's one thing to see a ship through a window at a ship yard but it's entirely another to see the ship you were serving on slowly falling apart while you and flung out in to space in a pod that is designed to save your life, it feels like the end of my life but as I tumble around I notice something "what's that? It looks like a wormhole but what caused it? Was it the ark fold?" I start looking around for the corvette that attacked us… It's defiantly like nothing I've seen before- my train of thought was suddenly derailed when my pod suddenly changes course, "computer explain the sudden course change?" "Intense gravitational forces form the anomaly, _**warning**_ contact with the anomaly in 10 seconds", this is it my life ended shortly after I thought it had started. I look out at the void around me then the out of control mass that is the Pride of Eden electrical discharging around it into the local space, until finally The cannon's housing gives out, I wasn't expecting to be able to witness the destruction of a capital ship, no sound just a blue wave of exploding crystite followed by the explosions of the main siege cannon exploding, "system failing, electromagnetic overload, system shutting down." That's it with the computer offline nothing is going to stop my pod from falling in to the… well I don't know how to describe it, wormhole maybe… no it's got a gravity well, black hole?... If it was a black hole I would already be dead. Too late to think about what it is more were it leads?

Still looking at my fate I notice that the electromagnetic pulse not only affected my ship but the… Hole in space (No, not dramatic, must keep thinking) is beginning to collapse but not before I make it through, Hitting the event horizon my pod's structural integrity begins to fail, I close my eyes accepting my fate, the world falls silent…is it over? is the night mare over? Have I passed on to a new life? The sound of the proximity alarm brings me back to reality; I open my eyes… nothing? Rubbing my head so I can try to let me focus I look at the altimeter, 5,000KM and dropping, "oww ok… WAIT WHAT!" I fumble around for the descent control system, 4,000KM and still dropping, finding the activation switch, 3,000KM. the descent system kicks in slowing the pod down to the safe landing speed… _**THUMP!, **_the pod hitting the ground I start trying to move to get out of the pod, as I do this I realise that the pod is still moving slightly… to late, the pod starts sliding down what I'm assuming is a hill, the pod finally comes to a stop, The hatch is jammed, I start beating on it eventually it gives way and I'm suddenly faced with the feeling of a cold night of an alien planet, getting out I listen carefully to the surrounding ambience, nothing not a sound. I start moving trying to find some form of civilisations that's when I find something big and tank like…


	3. Chapter 3

Of all the things to run in to after hitting land I find a tank, It looks abandoned, some many questions but one comes forward over the rest "were am I?" against better judgement I clime on top of the tank and start looking for a access hatch, as I do I start noticing more and more how damaged the tank is, looks like its seen quite a bit of combat. "What was that?" In the distance I can hear something humming; interested I abandon the tank and start moving towards the sound slowly and quietly. As I get to the top of the hill I see a rippling dome peering over the top of it, once at the top of the hill I get a real feeling of size when the thing I see is a good Kilometre away and a good half a Kilometre high, Three pylons holding up the almost transparent dome in the middle of the structure it a platform with a spiralling column of light being projected from the centre of it, but what really caught my eye was a large jet like craft parked in front of a moderate sized building, "I'm not alone on this planet?" turning around to head back to the tank I find myself face to face with three people all with weapons but the third person, A much larger person in excess of 7 foot who has two rotary cannons attached to his arms… what can I say? "Umm… hi?" as I say this the one that I assumed is the leader (I assume based on the fact that he has an odd looking hat on his head) moves forward keeping his gun pointed at my head; "Vanu or New Conglomerate?" what an odd question, "pardon?" "Answer the question! Vanu or New Conglomerate" "nether?" the other guy said, how odd the first bit of séance that I've had for a while, "what are you saying private?" "Look at his skin, its grey and his eyes are that of a lizard", I don't look that ugly, at least I'm not a pink skinned freak, "the only alien activity that is evident on this planet was the Vanu technology-""Wait a sec, Vanu? That name sound's familiar-""of Corse it dos the Vanu Sovereignty control most of the contents" "no no, not what I meant at all. The name Vanu appears often in the history of my people, most of us doubt there existence especially considering that the only evidence is some scriptures on some ancient ruins on the fifth planet in our solar system."

They look at me mystified caught halfway between mistrust and disbelief, but still I need to find anyone else from the Pride of Eden who made it through the anomaly as well… if anyone survived?. "Is there a way off this planet?" "We haven't really stoped to think about a way off-""did you hear that?" "Hear what?" "GET DOWN!" As if by reaction the larger person of the group tackles everybody to the ground. As this happens a large plasma round slams into the rock, "MAGRIDER!" I peer over the rock we are now hiding behind to see what fired at us, at that point I see a large oval shaped vessel hovering along the ground, some fetchers of it are the large cannon on the front and a slightly smaller cannon mounted on the top, the top mounted gun opens fire letting off a six round burst, diving back under the protection of the rock, I look up just in time to see three of the round travel strait through the rock we are hiding behind the other three hit the hill side, "_why is it always a __Saron? _We need help, deploying beacon." He pulls a cylindrical device out of one of the pouches on his belt enters a code and then slams one of the ends into the ground, after he does this a beam of light starts emitting from the device, placing two fingers on what must be a control device on his wrist he speaks "Beacon deployed, drop heavy assaults on my position now!" another plasma round hits the rock making it crack a little. Three noises similar to an explosion resonates in the atmosphere, looking up I see what look like bombs are hurtling towards the ground at break neck speed, They slam into the ground surrounding the tank then out of the dust missiles start slamming into the tank from all directions, after the dust settles I look out from behind the almost destroyed rock, "threat terminated" looking around I see the sauces of the missiles three moderately armed individuals with what look like magazine feed missile launchers.

Getting off the ground I find myself once again face to face with a gun "If you are who you say you are, then how did you get here?" how do I put this? I begin telling the story of the attack on the carrier; I get the feeling that they really don't believe it But I see a slight sign of hope when I mention the anomaly, this resulted in a response from the funny hat wearing one, "So you came here through a wormhole?" "Well wormhole like thing it was what I assume a result of the Ark fold and the event that followed, I still have no Idea what that thing was? None of that matters now, I'm stuck here and to make things worse it appears that I'm the only one that made it off the Pride of Eden?" I only just realise now that the three moderately armed people have found their way to us, only now do I realise that one of them has a hat like the other guy they turn to each other as speak, "Scarecrow, how nice of you to drop in" "Notbob what have I told you about pissing off the VS they really don't like it when you park outside of their warp gate… hello there who are you?" he finally noticed me. "He's a person who's not from around here" they turn away from me and continue to talk after about five minutes I decide to walk back to my pod in the hope that most of the systems are still intact. The com-system is still intact hopefully I can use it to work out if any other pods are here, "what you doing?" the question catches me off guard and I hit my head on the canopy of my pod "oww… what do you want?" Turning around I see who I think is Scarecrow standing behind me with a device in his hand, "we have called for a galaxy pickup, we can take to back to our warp gate once there we can work out what to do with you." He sounds unhappy with this choice I get the feeling that the other guy made the choice. "look, scarecrow is it? For once in my life I'm stuck on a planet somewhere in the universe and I don't know If I'm the only one of my kind on this planet or if some others got pulled through?" he's looking around sometimes his gaze stops on my pod he finally speaks. "Look if it's any consolation there have been reports of mystery pods like yours dropping all over If anything one of them is bound to have something in it, come on the galaxy will be here soon." "What about my pod? We can use some of the tech off it to tap into signals from the other pods." He ponders this for a bit but eventually nods, "I'll go get the others to lend a hand with the pod."

It doesn't take too long to move the pod to a suitable landing zone, the whole time I was wondering where to start? Should I kiss my old life goodbye? Will I even have a life to go back to? "What am I going to do?" my thinking gets to the point where I let one thought slip by accident, nobody noticed or they just don't feel the need to say anything. The wait seems to be taking an eternity yet the people around me seem to be acting as if they do it all the time, It makes me what to ask "Who are you guys?" they all turn around at once and look at each other as if to ask who should tell him, "we are the Terran Republic, or at least a small fraction of the Terran Republic." Not much was said beyond that point… about 15 minutes later a large cargo plane comes flying overhead, almost by reaction I duck into cover but notice that no one else seems to Instead they all look at me as if to say He will get there some day, the person I've come to know as Notbob (still trying to work out why?) go's to start communicating with the com system, I take advantage of this and try to tap into the frequency, "land on yellow smoke" "*crackle* spotted *crackle* sight *crackle* now" so close but no luck, the com frequency is somewhere between 240_mhz _and 370_mhz_ but it seem to jump around they must use a rotating frequency, the galaxy (I'm assuming) comes in for a landing with a bit of speed behind it, upon landing the back loading ramp lowers down to allow us to get onboard, "how good are you at firing a turret on a moving platform?" I think that question was aimed at me but there's no way to tell, getting a good look inside the galaxy I automatically notice the 4 Augmented reality control platforms at the very front of the craft followed by what resemble the jump chairs on the capital myself in brings back memories, I seem to be having trouble getting the pride of Eden out of my head "hey, something on your mind?" the question catches me off guard; I look up to see who said it but can't see anyone, where did they all go? "Umm… hello?" "To your left idiot" no it can't be "McKenzie?" "Who else little bro?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Not that I'm not happy to see you but why are you here?" "Well little bro do you remember the accident?" that day was bad "that accident almost lost you your life Kenzie, how could I forget?" "do you remember what the doctor said?" "He said that you would be _ok _but slightly different" the slightly different part hit me harder than anything else, "you kept coming back to check up on me but every time you did I seemed to be getting worse." "I was afraid I was going to lose you… like we lost the parents." Remembering this is getting harder and harder, what's going on? "The last time we met you weren't exactly _ok, _that day was yesterday the day before I shipped off to join the crew of the Pride of Eden, hang on a sec you were unconscious in an almost comatose state, how did you get here?" "When the doctor said different he was referring to a small pocket of tissue located at the base of my Cerebellum, that pocket was an effect of the crystite." Now I remember the accident involved refined crystite "that mutation gave me the ability to see through the eyes of the people around me, in the time you were gown I took the chance to expand upon the skill improving the range of the link, the moment word got back that the Pride of Eden was destroyed and you weren't among the crew that made it back-" "wait a sec it only been a day? How do you know this?" "You mean you don't know? It's been six months since that day and-" "and what? Tell me Kenzie I must know." "And… they stopped looking for you and the others" I feel my heart sink, "_six months, _I don't believe it_, _this can't be happening they couldn't have given up like this?" "But they did Conner, the funeral service was three months ago; you, captain Bain and three others were gown in every else's eyes but not mine." "They stopped looking, what did they find?" my mind always seeking an answer to everything draws a blank on this one, what can't I answer me own question. "Little bro, I've missed you, don't give up we can find a way to get you home… _no not now_!" "kenzie what is it?" "The doctor is coming back; he's going to give me my daily medication." Is that so bad? "What's bad about it?" "They dull my mind and prevent me from reaching out; this is bad really really bad. I need to go little bro, I will make contact again soon" the room falls to darkness and I can feel myself falling as if the floor was just torn from under me, I hear a soft voice in my head "I will see you soon brother." And with that it ended with a thud.

Opening my eyes I find myself looking at the roof a large room, looking around I see several beds and monitors "were am I?" trying to sit up I feel a sharp pain in my head and fall back down onto the bed as I do a person comes rushing in. "No don't try to sit up, you have been out for a while." Looking at him I notice a badge on his left shoulder, NS? "Who are you?" the question makes him step back a bit. "I should be asking you the same; I'm Anton, chief medic of Mekala tech plant." "How did I get here?" "You were dropped off by some Terran Republic troops and they left someone behind, I can find him and he can bring you up to date, don't try to get up." With that he leaves, refusing his orders it try to at least sit up, finally managing to prop myself upright, looking around I notice that the air is rather warmer than it was before. It takes Anton sometime to get back and this time he is followed by someone who I don't recognise, they both stop in the doorway and exchanging some odd looks before approaching, the other person speaks first "you certainly look better then you were" the what I was? "Sorry you're going to have to remind me, what happened exactly?" he looks at Anton "you're going to have to excuse us medic this is something he won't like" the medic looks back and forth between us before walking off, "cursed Nanite Systems, don't know when they aren't wanted… anyway you probably have a lot of questions." He pulls a chair out from behind one of the beds and sits down looking at me, "well ask away?" he certainly isn't line any of the other solders I've come across so far. "Ok… I'll take your silence a queue for me to start, I'm Macross, MAX unit specialist under the command of commissar Notbob, the planet you are on is Auraxis, our kind have been stuck here for well over three hundred years and have been locked in eternal battle with the Vanu Sovereignty and the New Conglomerate, please stop me if I'm overloading you." He's doing well "tell me what a MAX is?" he stops to ponder how to proceed "MAX also known as a Mechanized Assault Exo-Suit is a suit of armour that is equipped with a weapon each arm, I believe you in counted one shortly after landing. Now rest up so we can get out of this place."

Five hours later the doctor comes back with Macross, Macross approaches and starts talking, "We need to get going, is he free to go Anton?" Anton looks at the republic soldier and nods "Ok we need to get going before the NC platoon gets here" he lends me a hand to get up from the bed, still feeling slightly groggy I stumble a bit before finding my footing, outside the structure I see more buildings but one catches my eye a large building overlooking the whole complex, we proceed towards a smaller building where I notice a rather small console with a holographic display showing a tank, Macross holds his hand up as if to say 'stay here' he moves toward the console and opens up one of the side panels, pulling a small circular device out of is pocket he places it on a larger device witch then begins to hum, slowly the holo-display changes colour and starts displaying a four wheeled bike, Macross presses a button on the console triggering a programme that starts displaying progress bars, as this happens a large square plate outside the building deploys a set of arms before closing up, after about two minutes the pad opens up revealing the exact same thing as was in the picture on the console, a two seated ATV with forward mounted grenade launcher, Macross steps past me pulling a mask over his head, he's changed outfit? Mounting the ATV he begins turning it on, upon finishing activating the vehicle he looks at me "well you coming or not?" I simply nod, getting on the back seat I notice that it has no restraining harness, "HOLD ON!" he yells as he slams down on the throttle, we clear the pad when I notice a tingling feeling all over me, looking around I notice something, "WHY CAN'T I SEE THE ATV!?" "THIS IS A FLASH; IT IS FITTED WITH A WRAITH CLOAKING DEVICE, THEY CAN'T SEE US BUT WE CAN SEE THEM!" "SEE WHO?" "THEM!" turning around to see what he's pointing at I spot five large tanks driving along the road straight towards us. "SHOULD WE GO AROUND!?" This seems to make him laugh a little "HAHA, SCARED OF A WEE BIT OF TANKS ARE WE!?" "YES!" "OK FINE THEN!" He turns sharply to the right going up the side of the road, this lets me get a good view of the armour column heading straight for the Tech Plant, I count around twenty large tanks, ten small tanks and two bus like vehicles, that's a platoon? How many are there? "HOLD ON!" We took a sharp turn back on to the road, driving for about half an hour before stopping for a quick rest brake, Macross walked off to make a call back to base, he came back three minutes later, he looks disappointed "Well?" he shakes his head before responding "It's another two hours till be get the Republic boarder, once there we are going to be transferred to Indar by Galaxy, once on Indar you are going to be detained until the high command knows what to do with you, I'm so sorry." Detained? How am I going to get home? Am I going to be stuck here forever? "Is there anything you can do?" He hung his head in shame, "No, my hands are tied, Notbob is trying but I doubt he's going to change their minds." I hang my head in defeat.

The ride to the boarder was as long as Macross said it would be giving me time to think my position, If I'm going to be stuck I might as well put my skills to good use. What happened to my pod? Am I the only one of my kind stuck here or did others get pulled into the same fate? What happened to the Assault craft that attacked us? These thoughts stop as suddenly as the flash that we are riding on almost flipping it in the process looking over my shoulder towards the front of the flash I notice that we have stopped just a few meters away from two large tanks with duel cannons mounted on top of a wide base pointed directly at us, I glance at Macross who by now had dismounted the flash and was moving to give me a hand off the back seat, I look back at the tanks and ask, "Are they friendly?" he looks me in the eye and says "mostly" mostly? What does he mean by mostly? It is at this point that I feet a sharp pain in my chest, looking down I see macros injecting me with a green liquid, "But why?" he shakes his head and whispers something "Remember, The end is never the end" I can feel my body slowly shutting down as I hear footsteps approaching, I hear a voice say something but it's faint "Is it done Macross?" that was the last thing to happen before I went down.


	5. Chapter 5

"Time to wake up little bro." "Come on Kenzie just let me rest, after all I just died." "Wait you died? But that doesn't add up, how am I still contacting you when you're dead?" well there are three possibilities; one I am alive and I'm somewhere unknown, two I'm dead and this is just a dream state before I'm officially dead or three the past two days have been a dream. "I heard that" Wait she can hear my thoughts? "Yep" well shit, "no need to be so mean I'm here to help, come on open your eyes I can't see without you." It takes a bit of strain but I finally open my eyes to an unfamiliar sight, "ok Kenzie, where am I?" "Don't know, you're somewhere but you're not on the same continent, no one else is around or at least from what you can see." I need to escape; I need to find out what happened… where to start? "Follow me I've got a rough Idea where we are." How do you know that? "I've been looking at maps through the eyes of some people and I think there's a base this way, come on I can't get any were without you." "Ok just let me get to my feet, tell me Kenzie is there a way I can prevent you from hearing my thoughts?" "What? Are you thinking I might hear something I'm not supposed to? Come on little bro I'm mean sometimes but I will leave you to your thoughts unless It's important." Finally, getting to my feet I look around, she was right there's no one for miles around, she's already walking off, "Hey wait up." Finally catching up to her I notice that she's looking rather pail, "Hey Kenzie, what's the matter? You seem a little under the wether." She stops suddenly as if frozen by my question, she turns to look at me and starts mouthing something as if she's thinking, "Kenzie?" Putting my hand on her shoulder to try and carm her down, she fells cold. "kenzie? What is it? Use your words." She closes her eyes for a moment before opening them again and then starts talking, "at a point during my time trying to find you… I felt as though I had lost you, as though I was the only of our family left. Don't ever disappear like that ever again." "I promise, so what is this place we are heading?" "Well you should be able to see it soon." "Soon as in a couple of minutes or soon as in a good kilometre away?" She didn't respond, I guess I'll just keep following.

A good few hours later I open my mouth for what seem like the one hundredth time today and ask the question that only gets people anger "are we there yet?" I just had to say that, she doesn't even respond, how odd, normally she's right on top of it but something's wrong "you know I'm still listening to your thoughts." Of course she is, well I'd better drop it before she gets annoyed at me and wants to kill me "now why would I do that?" oh right, should be careful what I think. Five hours later and we still haven't said a thing to each other and still haven't seen any sight of the base, so where is it then? I tempted to ask her but I remember that she can already hear me… wait a sec were did she go? "Kenzie!?" where did she get off to now? Stopping to look around I notice a familiar sound, humming? Not just any humming the humming of a warp gate. Running towards the detraction of the sound, "Not what I wanted to see." I finally fin the sauce of the noise and it's not a warp gate in fact it's far too small to be a warp gate It's a covered area, approaching the base I notice three consoles one console looks like the one Macross used to obtain that flash the other two I have no idea what they do, maybe this is the base Kenzie was talking about, no other choice but to get closer to it and get a better look at what's inside. Nobody's home that's a good start time to look at what I can do from here, entering the base I can finally get a proper look at what's inside; four consoles displaying different things, a set of five beds, A wall mounted device that looks to be big enough to fit a person but it sealed off by a field, a table and five chairs, I know it's not home but It's all I've got at the moment besides I'm tired there are beds and the sun is going down guess Its time to go to bed.

I wake to an unforgiving sunrise and to top it all off last night wasn't the best sleep ever but it will do considering that I've still got no Idea where I am. Sitting up I notice McKenzie sitting on the table staring towards the sunrise. "Hey Kenzie, where did you go yesterday?" no response, She was acting rather strange yesterday. I should probably drop the subject; unfortunately that thought only lasted a good fifteen minutes, I need to make shore she's alright. "Kenzie? What's up? You've been quiet all morning." Still no response, ok now this is getting scary. "Kenzie?" moving to place my hand on her shoulder when I notice something and automatically react, her image distorted for a second as I placed my hand on her shoulder as if she was a program in some artificial reality. What is going on? This isn't right, where am I? More importantly who is the woman sitting in front of me? Is she Kenzie? Is she some artificial construct? Is this all in my head? I stumble back in to a corner and slide down the wall, this whole week has been hell, I rest my head on my knees and close my eyes in the hope that I can wake up from this nightmare… I wake from a slight of hopelessness only to still be looking at whomever or whatever it is impersonating my sister, maybe she is the real Kenzie or maybe she isn't ether away I'm not taking any more chances with her. Getting up from my ball like position I notice another body lying on the floor in front of the device "Hello?" they seem to be Unconscious taking my chance I tare a strip of fabric off my clothing and move to tie their hands, I am not taking any chances no matter who or what they are. I dragged them over to a corner of the building and propped them up upon doing so I catch a glimpse of his face "Captain Bain?"

Can it be him after all this time? It's too good to be true this must be another trick but it doesn't add up, how are they making exact copies of the people I know? Once and if he comes to I will ask him some questions. In the meantime I'm going to take a look at the consoles starting with the console that has the picture of a rifle displayed. About three hours later I thinks I've worked out the basic controls of it, let's just say I've now got myself a rifle. I did however find it a little odd having a rifle ran on cartridge ammunition and I think I've located some ammo for it on this console, ok now to remember the process; 1) select weapon, 2) select ammo 3)enter quantity in magazines 4)dispense. Ok so I want 10 Magazines in case of situations. Now are the people awake. Turning around to see the Captain stirring, hopefully he's in a questioning mood. "Welcome back to the land of the conscious Captain." This makes him freeze on the spot slowly looking up to meet my disappointed gaze "Engineer McDonald I assume, to what do I owe the pleasure of your disappointment." He's got me there "well John, can I call you John? I've had a shit day so far and I'm hoping that you're not going to be a part of the problem, so if you don't mind I would like to ask you some questions." "You need to work out if I am who you think I am, very well you may ask any questions." Where do I start? "Well John I've got a question to start us off, what was the name of the ship you were in command of?" "The Pride of Eden" "ok next question, what was the task assigned to the carrier be for we were shot down?" "We were tasked for training exercises with the dreadnought 'fire fall' in orbit and on the ground of the planet Hosen." Two for two but this last one will get him, "When we were shot down what class ship attacked us?" he ponders it for a bit before answering "We were attacked by a Corvette of unknown origins, It dealt critical damage to the siege cannon mounting causing critical overloading to occur in the cannon itself, there was nothing I could have done and that still haunts me. So Conner, I'm assuming your name is Conner; do you have any Idea where we are?"

It takes close to an hour to bring him up to date on what happened after going through the tare in space to now, "So up to know my only theory as to where we are currently is in some form of Virtual Reality, sorry again for tying you up captain I just had no idea if you were who you are or if you were an imposter." "Speaking of tying me up can you please untie me?" "Shore just give me a sec, I think this console has a knife blueprint." "Console?" Oh yeh he probably hasn't seen this this thing before, after imputing the command to fabricate a knife I turn around to see his reaction to it forming, his mouth opens in awe as a near perfect combat knife starts to form on the table in front of him, once it finishes I start trying to cut the bindings after witch I sit back down at the table leaving him to look over the knife. "Impressive design, did you notice this button on the side?" pressing it down slowly, the button clicks and not even half a second later the blade lurches to life, revving and sputtering the curated blade begins to revolve around the central body. "Chain blade? Nice." He relives the button causing the blade to stop. "So John who got you?" he looks at me for a bit before speaking. "They never said who they were they just knock me out and that's all I remember, how about you?" "They called themselves the Terran Republic, the group I was intercepted by was led by a man who they called NotBob, still trying to work out why but all I know is that one of them called Macross injected me with a green liquid that's the last I heard from them. Do you know if anyone else made it through?"


End file.
